Masalazine

We were born deep in the depths of the pandemic in a primordial soup of Netflix binge watching and sourdough starters. We noticed that all the shows coming out that year related to South Asian identity and experience were… limited and not great. For one, brown folk other than Indians exist - where are all the Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, Indo-Ghanaians and Kenyans and South Africans, Indo-Caribbeans, Indo-Singaporeans, British South Asians, South Asian Americans, and all the other folks that are definitely missing from this list? Basically, representation of South Asians, especially marginalized genders, is limited. One brave soul decided to rage against the machine and post a critique of one of these shows on Facebook and asked (half-jokingly but not really) if anyone wanted to write a different show with her. A furious and lively Facebook chat was born. Then a Facebook group. Then a social media machine. And now, a lit mag. Masalazine is part of a group founded in May 2020 in response to a lack of satisfactory representation of our identities in publishing & media. We bring people and resources together to foster writing & enable access to like-minded individuals. Masalazine is an online literary magazine created by and for South Asian people of marginalized genders (because no one else was doing it). We highlight the original work of writers who identify as trans, women, or nonbinary. Basically, communities and resources for writing have been available to privileged groups for decades - nay, centuries - allowing them to bring their stories to the mainstream. Down with the cisgendered heteronormative capitalist white supremacist colonialist patriarchy! Make room for our stories! Our goal is to build our own network so we can share the stories only we can tell. If you aren’t of a marginalized gender, please give us your money anyway. We understand that you may be disappointed that you don’t get to experience our awesomeness firsthand, but you can always turn to the millions of other publications that privilege your awesomeness over ours. Just let us have our little corner of the literary community, okay? Please give us money. Why money? Because it buys things. Things like a website, labor, food, and pet toys. A website gives us a home. Labor needs compensation. Food keeps us alive. Pet toys keep the cats happy, and the cats keep us happy. (We’ll only use the money you donate to pay for a website and labor.)

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